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    Atlas Shrugged
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    Atlas Shrugged
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    Atlas Shrugged
    Audiobook (abridged)11 hours

    Atlas Shrugged

    Written by Ayn Rand

    Narrated by Edward Herrmann

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    "Who is John Galt?" is the immortal question posed at the beginning of Ayn Rand's masterpiece. The answer is the astonishing story of a man who said he would stop the motor of the world—and did.

    As passionate as it is profound, Atlas Shrugged is one of the most influential novels of our time. In it, Rand dramatizes the main tenets of Objectivism, her philosophy of rational selfishness. She explores the ramifications of her radical thinking in a world that penalizes human intelligence and integrity.

    Part mystery, part thriller, part philosophical inquiry, part volatile love affair, Atlas Shrugged is the book that confirmed Ayn Rand as one of the most popular novelist and most respected thinkers of the 20th century.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighBridge Audio
    Release dateMay 25, 2000
    ISBN9781598872606
    Unavailable
    Atlas Shrugged
    Author

    Ayn Rand

    Ayn Rand (1905–1982) wrote the bestselling novels The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957) and founded the philosophy known as objectivism. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, Rand taught herself to read at the age of six and soon resolved to become a professional writer. In 1926, she left Communist Russia to pursue a screenwriting career in Hollywood, and she published her first novel ten years later. With her next book, the dystopian novella Anthem (1938), she introduced the theme that she would devote the rest of her life to pursuing: the inevitable triumph of the individual over the collective. 

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    Reviews for Atlas Shrugged

    4/5

    6,080 ratings264 reviews

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    • 4/5
      As befitting a political manifesto (for it is certainly that), it's a completely one-sided perspective on America. If you read The Grapes of Wrath as a counterbalance, you might end up somewhere around reality. One of the things I find most interesting about this book is that I read it first in high school and thought the concepts were intriguing; I read it again in college and found the concepts a bit repellent; I read it a third time in my forties and found them amusing. Oh well.Regardless of any of that, it's a story whose characters are colorfully drawn and intriguing (as long as you skip Galt's speech *smile*) and worth reading regardless of how you feel about Objectivism.
    • 5/5
      Thoughtful, straightforward, gripping; especially pages 1 through 1074.
    • 5/5
      Read this over 15 years ago but the principle/philosophy is timeless. An excellent book for any one interested in conservatism.
    • 4/5
      This was a great book on tape, except I kept wanted to go for a drive. I ended up having to get the paperbook as well. Interesting and well written story. Kept my interest to the very end. Gave me a lot to think about.
    • 4/5
      This book was first recommended to me by a friend who knew of my passion for railways, so I began reading it thinking it was a good story about the building of the transcontinental railroads in the USA. Before too many pages, of course, I realised that I was into heavy philosophical stuff. Like many other reviewers, I think it's a very good read even though I disagree with the basic philosophy it espouses. While one can't help having some sympathy for the hard-working heroes, the way it deals with a society in which human beings might care for and about other human beings is a highly distorted and misleading caricature. Straw men are easy to knock down.
    • 5/5
      One of my all-time favorite books, this. Rand explores the complex motivations, rewards, relationships, duties, and hardships of the industrial age in relation to capitalism, communism, and Rand's own objectivism. I loved the book not so much because of the philosophical stances, but because of the overall plots, imagery, and character interactions within the storyline.
    • 5/5
      What would happen in our society if the best and the brightest stopped producing? The motor of the world would stop. Who is John Galt? He is the embodiment of objectivism, the philosophy grounded in uncompromising individual competency and productivity. Creeping socialism produces incompetent moochers and looters who use the extortion of guilt to take money and goods from men like Galt without earning them. Rand's novel follows the personal lives of Galt's heroic friends as they plan and build their secret utopia and allow the general economy to collapse on its empty socialist promises. Rand looks at her philosophy from every possible angle and interrupts the story with lengthy explanations. This style is reminiscent of Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain. The writing style is simple and direct, and the characters engage in conversations that are far from the ordinary. This is a great novel for the careful reader willing to spend time with the lengthy work and take notes on key premises.
    • 5/5
      Great book. This should be required reading before someone can declare themselves a socialist.
    • 4/5
      This book is a must read for everyone - besides the deeper meanings, I just love the basic story about the world going to hell b/c the idiots are left to run it!
    • 4/5
      Readers who make the effort to plow through this incredibly dense volume will be rewarded with a compelling tale and insights that might linger for a lifetime. If only Rand had practiced the "less is more" style of storytelling.
    • 3/5
      6/14/2004This became somewhat of a chore to get through, although it was interesting in parts. The story is original; a bright individual convinces other smart people to stop working in the outside world, to withdraw their effort from others. This leads to the dissolution of industrial society. Among the heros of the effort are Dagny Taggert, really the main character of the book, a beautiful daughter of a railroad family, obsessed with running the railroad. Her brother and his friends are essentially communists, and they are opposed by industrialists, and John Galt. He is the philosopher and physicist who figures out how to withdraw his effort from the world. He has help from Sebastian d'Anconia, and Ragnar Dannejskold, both rich students turned playboy and pirate. The message is Rand's positivist philosophy, the idea that one is living one's own life, and that selfishness is the highest form of morality. The vow of the "deserters" is "I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."The problem is that the philosophy is drilled in, lectured at, and in one incredible chapter, about 70 pages are given to a speech by John Galt; epigramatic and repetitive, it states Rand's philosophy, but it is slow going. The book has a very dated feel; the great industrialists are steel makers and railroad executives, and the criminals are obviously communist thugs. I was interested in Rand's philosophy and will return to musing about it, but I suspect I am one of the few who have slogged all the way through the novel, although I did meet a clerk at the Saturn place who read it, and the leitmotif of the book, "Who is John Galt?" is in the cement as grafitti at Montgomery College.
    • 5/5
      A compelling story, but one marred by the similarities between Rand's literary style and de Sade's...
    • 3/5
      I have a strange relationship with Ayn Rand. I buy some, but not all of her philosophy. I find her writing mediocre for the most part- so strongly devicive that its poainful at times to read the preposterous dialogue and insulting the way she must spoon feed everything to the reader- but for some reason I am so propelled by her storylines that I must plug on, just to find out what happens next. I really haven't found anyone who has the same reaction to her books. Seems most don't find them page turners.
    • 4/5
      Totally too long, totally crazy and totally awesome. When we will have a new Ayn Rand??
    • 3/5
      Rand would be a good writer if she toned down her attitude a bit. I suppose she wouldn't be Rand though... This book is a good read as long as you don't feel guilty skimming through the oratories.
    • 5/5
      One of the most compelling novels I have ever read. Dagny Taggart and her fellow "shrugging" industrialists make for an extremely memorable cast of characters, and the plot is breathlessly fast-paced and exciting. Rand's philosophy ("objectivism") is uncompromising...so much so that you may come away from this book with a changed outlook on politcs and life. But it's Rand's writing that, for me, was most memorable: bare, stripped down, every word perfectly focused, and every sentence economically but effectively constructed. She lives her ideal through her language.
    • 5/5
      One of my top ten books, ever. In some ways a guide for moral living; a devastating critique of socialist thought. Logical, inspiring, and controversial. I really couldn't put it down.
    • 5/5
      I first read Atlas Shrugged 42 years ago, and have read it 4 or 5 times more over the decades following. I found it to be a powerful influence on my life, probably more than any single other book I have read.I recognize as well as anyone its shortcomings and imperfections, but see through them to a powerful message that has been a rock for me. It is something like this: the world is real, and your ideas about how it functions matter, and influence the sort of life you will live. That heroes, producers and achievers are more worthy of admiration than victims; that moochers and mystics, quacks and charlatans are only to be scorned; that to believe in the salvation of a sky god is nothing but superstition; that a hard-headed, objective point of view is superior to a fuzzy sentimentality and that hard work is a virtue that eventually leads to a better life than one that concentrates on satisfying the whims and indulgences of the moment.While Ayn Rand's prose style never approaches that of another hero of mine, H. L. Mencken, it is certainly respectable enough to produce a novel of great originality and is, for many people, very difficult to put down once well started. It is well suited to her primary goal to communicate a coherent world view, an epistemology, and a derived ethic that can actually be lived. A mathematician struggling after a theorem hardly uses humor as a tool, and Rand has no room here for it either.As for Rand's analysis of Capitalism, I find it superior to Marx's. But I know that economics is complicated, and hardly a science yet, so her appreciation of the laissez faire variety is probably a bit of an oversimplification. And a naive libertarianism, much influenced by her objectivism, while hardly sweeping the world for now, has something to contribute too. Her biggest failure to me, though, is the problem of race, which she never discusses. It is no easy task to apply her approach to such a difficult problem, and I am not aware of any. The alternative basis in a hard-headed sociobiology, though, would probably have been quite comfortable for her, had it been available then.Rand's message is powerful and a positive contribution to the progress of the world. Take a look--I doubt you will be disappointed.
    • 4/5
      I blasted through this book one summer in college. It is the kind of book that has the power to define a whole chunk of a person's life and for that reason I will always love it. Just the mention of John Galt and I can remember every single detail about the summer that I read this book. I was in love with it for a year or so, and then, like some other reviewers here, I grew up. I will always have it on my shelf and always remember it fondly. I have not reread it. I am not sure that I want to tarnish the absolute excitement and joy that I remember about it. I am envious of anyone encountering this book for the first time- it was just that wonderful and exciting. Enjoy it and move on. You will be embarrassed years later if you try to recreate yourself in Dagny Taggart's image (from one who knows!)
    • 4/5
      Very relevant for the times we are living and a needed message of hope for those who care to be the best version of ourselves
    • 5/5
      Read this book a few years ago. Always great to be reminded of the values of productivity and that the ability to think is your greatest asset.
    • 5/5
      Timeless book that accounts for what we see in our world today. Essentially, nothing has changed. Certainly ahead of her time, Ayn Rand captures the socialist core and devastation it yields.
    • 5/5
      I had been so afraid of tackling this ‘heavy’ book, in more ways than one; but to my great surprise, I found it engaging and enjoyable.
    • 5/5
      Great narrator, full of emotions. Would love to hear more from him.
    • 5/5
      This should be required reading in every school in Western civilization. .
    • 3/5
      There are certainly enjoyable parts of the story although I fell the soliloquies are too long winded and tend to repeat themselves. This is by no means a must-read book although if you ever had even a slight desire to read it you should probably make an attempt.
    • 2/5
      All those words and it still falls short of any poignancy.
    • 3/5
      This book didn’t quite succeed as drama, action, or sci-fi. It is overly complicated and detailed and ultimately I could not shake the feeling that I was listening to 12 hours of mundane capitalist propaganda. I just wasn’t able to connect with the characters or become invested in the plot. However, it was good to pass the time on my cross country car drive. Only caveat you may have to rewind the story like I did because your mind will inevitably wander.
    • 3/5
      Abridge to nowhere thought Howard Roark and Dominique Francon subjectively.
    • 4/5
      I was pleasantly surprised by this story. It seemed like it was gonna play out like a Formula crime novel, but it went in a direction I didn't see it going.